“The CDA is still considered a relatively new agency and we're striving to provide assurances to the public that we are a professional agency capable of responding to their needs,” said CDA interim Director Tim Mahler in a statement.

The CDA must meet 212 CALEA standards to receive accreditation, a voluntary process.

The agency has seen its share of high-profile mishaps since it opened in 2013 as an emergency dispatch system for all of Leon County’s first responder organizations.

The CDA has logged 11 full-system dispatch failures, several high-profile human errors and high employee turnover, including the resignation and retirement of its directors. It has faced criticism over shortcomings in first responder warnings within the Motorola Solutions Inc. system.

In 2015, a Leon County grand jury skewered the agency for not relaying critical information, premise hazards, that they said could have prevented Leon County Sheriff’s Deputy Chris Smith from being shot in an ambush the year before.

The CDA has also come under fire for mishandling 911 calls during the Strozier Library shooting at Florida State University, sending first-responders to the wrong location during a crash that killed three and for causing delays in responding to the shooting death of FSU law professor Dan Markel.

In June 2016, premise hazard protocols and computer systems, central to the Smith shooting, were upgraded. The information warns arriving law enforcement of threats related to a specific address.

The upgrade requires dispatchers to acknowledge and relay to first responders a clearly displayed warning before they can proceed with a 911 call.

A final audit of the CDA was completed in December 2016 and made 25 recommendations to eradicate technical, personnel and operation problems that persisted during its first three years in operation.

CALEA was created in 1979 by four law enforcement associations: The International Association of Police Chiefs, National Association of Black Law Enforcement Executives, the National Sheriffs’ Association and the Police Executive Research Forum.

Seeking the CALEA accreditation is the next step in ensuring the CDA is following best practices critical to its operation as a dispatch agency.

“Participation in this voluntary accreditation process allows us to bring in independent assessors to verify whether we are following the 911 industry’s best practices,” Mahler wrote. “It is also a good way to recognize the agency’s strengths and identify areas for improvement.”

Accreditation announcements are awarded during the CALEA Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan.